Finals Week

Saturday, February 26, 2011

                It has been yet another busy week here in Costa Rica.  It was the last week of our first session of classes, so I had a lot of prep work and studying to do for my final exams.  I went to a soda called Asucar y Sal (sugar and salt) with Amy, and we sat and studied for our Spanish 419 class together.  We had been there for about an hour when a Costa Rican man came and sat at the table right next to ours.  After a few minutes he asked us if we spoke Spanish, and he told us that he was studying English here in Costa Rica, and he has a wife who lives in Pennsylvania.  He asked Amy and me what our names are.  We were advised to not give out personal information to anyone we didn’t know, so Amy said, “My name is Chris,” and I told him my name was Sarah.  He was a really nice guy, but you can never be too careful. 

                Part of our Spanish 419 class is studying the different cultures in Latin America, so Amy asked the man what is thoughts were about all of the different cultures here in Costa Rica.  His response kind of surprised me.  He was pretty negative about certain groups of people, and very stereotypical of what they were like.  It was very interesting to hear what he had to say though, and I learned a lot about his Costa Rican perspective of immigrants into the country.  He told us never to walk around alone at night, and to always have our belongings secure, things we had heard before.  Here’s the kicker.  When the soda closed, he asked us if we wanted a ride home.  Really?  You just warned us about talking to strangers and keeping our belongings secure.. do you really think we’re going to get into a car with you?  Some people.. geez.  So Amy and I each took taxis home. 

Here are some photos from the week: 

Isaiah and I found this little friend while walking outside in San Jose during our lunch break

 The new soccer, or fútbol stadium in San Jose that was a gift from China.  It's shaped like a coffee bean because it's one of the main exports here in Costa Rica.

Walking to the bus right after a rain storm

                I met with Lara, one of the TA’s at the campus, this week for a one on one so she could check in with how things were going with my host family and classes and everything.  It was really great to talk with her about classes and to get to know her better.  We met at a local restaurant called Bossa Nova, a Portuguese restaurant about a 5 minute walk from my house.  We ordered these hot chocolate drinks that have chunks of chocolate resting at the bottom, but since the drink it hot all of the chocolate is melted.  It was glorious, I could drink those all day every day for the rest of my life.

                On Thursday night nearly everyone in our class met at a Bossa Nova after class to study for the 419 test again.  Nearly everyone meaning 7 out of the 8 students in the class.  I love having such small classes here!  It was a really productive meeting, and a lot of fun to study with everyone. 

                Friday was D day, meaning 3 tests and a paper due in one day.  My Spanish 302 tests went really well, I love that class.  Dinorah, my professor, is so wonderful.  The 419 test was very daunting.  We had to write about the themes and cultural meaning of two of the four movies we watched during the class, write a paragraph about 10 key people, events and ideas, and write a 5 page paper about major events, movements and ideas from Latin American culture and history.  It took me the entire 3 hours to complete it, and my hand is still a little sore today from so much writing.  But it’s OVER!!  Thank goodness.  From here on out I will only have one class at a time instead of two like I had this session.     

My finished Spanish 419 exam: 5 1/2 pages hand written front and back.

           

                After the test a group of us went to a bakery in Heredia called Trigo y Miel, which means Wheat and Honey in Spanish, to meet with Angels Aller, one of the Spanish professors from Whitworth North.  She came to visit the Costa Rica campus last week to see how things are going and to check in with the students.  Hollie and I split a Tres Leches, which is a really moist cake kind of dessert.  The talk with Angeles was really good, we gave her some suggestions about how the program could be improved, and what we really like about it so far.

Tres Leches

                That night a group of us went out on the town in Heredia to a restaurant to hang out and experience some Costa Rica night life.  We could hear people singing karaoke in every restaurant we walked by.  One thing you should know about Costa Rica: they take karaoke VERY seriously.  It’s kind of funny actually, because people here get so into it.  We ordered platacones at the restaurant, which are an appetizer of smashed baked plantains.  If you ever go to Costa Rica I highly recommend ordering platacones somewhere, they are fantastic.

                Today I sat outside at the park for a little over an hour and enjoyed the sunshine and wrote in my journal.  I sat right in front of the church, and watched a bride and groom take pictures outside of the church after their wedding.  The weather here has been fabulous, but later on this week we’re supposed to get some pretty intense thunder storms.  I’m excited, I love thunder and lightning!  This next week I don’t have any classes except for Core 350 on Wednesday, so I’m hoping to take some day trips to San Jose and maybe to the beach before we head to Nicaragua on March 5^th for a week.  

 Sitting in the sun at the park in front of the church

               

Week of Insanity

Sunday, February 20, 2011

                It’s been awhile since I have updated everyone on what I’ve been up to!  This week has been very overwhelming to say the least.  But Juan made bolas de coco (coconut balls), my favorite, on Friday for our postre (dessert) so that definitely made my week a little better!  

 Bolas de coco.  One of the best things I've ever eaten.

I had a midterm exam in my Spanish 419 class, so I was up late studying material for the exam every night.  This is partially my fault for deciding to go to the beach last weekend instead of spending the day studying.  But you know what?  I’m in Costa Rica, and the beach just sounded too good to pass up. :) My 419 class is a Latin American culture and civilization course, and the course is taught in Spanish.  It’s definitely a difficult class, but I’m really enjoying what I’ve learned so far.  I just wish that I didn’t have two classes, and on Wednesdays three, every day.  It’s exhausting to take two classes in 3 weeks that usually take a semester to complete!  Needless to say, I love my professors and am learning very quickly.  

        Here are some random pictures from my week:

I saw these ants while I was walking to my internship in San Jose.  Look closely at the top left ant. I definitely do NOT want to get bitten by one of these guys!

 Anne and I were fascinated by this Siamese banana

 A sunset on my walk home after school.

                On Friday night I worked on some homework and went to bed early after an exhausting week.  Saturday was a lot of fun!  After being shut in a classroom all week in the windy, misty mountains I was ready to go outside and enjoy some Costa Rican sun!  Whitworth South is up on Monde de la Cruz, and is situated right in the middle of a rainforest, so it’s always about 20 degrees cooler up there than it is in town.  It rains, or mists, every day.  I learned today that the mist on the mountains is called pelo del gato, literally translated to “cat hair” in Spanish.  It’s a Costa Rican phrase.. There are a lot of slang phrases here that the Ticos and Ticas use that I need to learn. 

                Anyways, my friend Bree and I walked around San Rafa for awhile.  We could not have picked a more perfect day to be outside.  The sun was shining, and there was a slight breeze to cool us off.  The farthest I’ve walked in San Rafa is from my house to the bus stop, so we adventured to the OTHER side of the bus stop and walked around that part of town for awhile.  We found a smoothie shop on one street called Cosechas, which means “things” in Spanish.  We bought a huge orange, pineapple and mango smoothie for $2, and it was fabulous.  

 Bree and me in San Rafa with our smoothie

So. Good. 

 The park in front of the church in San Rafael

Closer picture of the church.  I could stare at this building all day, it's so beautiful!

                Bree had to go back to her house after awhile, so I met up with my friend Amy, and she and I took the bus to Heredia to go exploring.  The bus is always an adventure, let me tell you.  There are two sensor bars when you first walk on the bus, and they “count” how many people get on and off the bus.  At the end of the day, if the bus driver does not have enough money for the number of people the bars sensed got on the bus, he has to pay the difference out of his own pocket.  And yes, all of the bus drivers are men.  When we all first arrived in Costa Rica and took the bus the first few times, we didn’t know about the sensor bars on the bus, and definitely got some dirty glares (and some incorrect change) from the bus driver for standing in between the bars while waiting to pay to get on the bus.  Oops.  Did I mention that all of the buses here are stick shift?  Who in their right mind ever thought that it would be a good idea to make a stick shift bus?!  I mean really, common sense here people.  Let me tell you, going up the mountain to school Tuesday-Friday on a stick shift bus is quite the experience.  The driver starts to gain some momentum, and then the bus lurches forward as he shifts gears, and then he gains a little bit more speed and then BAM, shifts gears again.  By the time he gets up to a decent speed, we have reached another stop, and the process of gear shifting starts all over again.  Balancing on a bus while standing up is hard enough, standing up in a moving bus that is constantly shifting gears is nearly impossible.  I’m just waiting for the day that I go flying down the aisle and start knocking down people like bowling pins.  Trust me, I’ll blog about it when it happens.

 Amy and me in the park at Parque Central in Heredia

                Where was I?  Oh right, Amy and I got on the bus without standing in between the sensor bars and held on for dear life as the gears grinded on our way to Heredia.  We met up with our friend Callie from Whitworth who is studying at the National University in Heredia.  She lives in Heredia, which is a much larger city than San Rafael, so she showed us around the city and her school.  It was a gorgeous day, so we decided to go to a local café to get some cool drinks.  Callie and I got a mint latte sort of drink, and Amy got a frozen blended brownie drink.  The waiter brought out our drinks and I was sooo excited to drink mine, until I realized that it was a hot coffee drink, not a cold one.  Oops.  It pays to read the fine (or really big) print that says “Café Caliente” (hot coffee).  

What I thought was going to be a cool, refreshing coffee drink

Super excited.. and then I realized it was hot. 

                After that the three of us caught a bus back to San Rafael.  My host mom Orella and I went to our pastor’s house for a Día de las Mujeres (women’s day) with the pastor’s wife and other ladies from the church.  It was a lot of fun!  The pastor at my church is from Michigan.  He and his wife are missionaries and started the church several years ago.  Since then, other American families have moved to San Rafael to be missionaries through the church there.  It’s really neat to have the mix of Costa Rican families and American families in the same church.  There were about 12 women at the house, and we played games and sang songs and ate dinner.  It was great to get to know some of the women better, and to practice my Spanish.  One of the women from the church gave a talk about how it’s important to take in God’s word as if we were thirsty in a desert and His word was a glass of cool water.  “Tu eres el agua viva,” means “You are the living water.”  We then talked about how we can use our gifts to serve in the church.  After talking for awhile, the women asked me if I would be willing to help lead worship and teach Sunday School once or twice a month.  Of course I said yes, and I’m really excited!  It’s been awhile since I’ve lead worship at church, and leading in Spanish will be something totally new for me.  After the women’s night, I came back home while Orella drove her sister and niece to their house.   I walked into the house and heard a beeping noise.  The alarm.  Awesome.  I punched in a few numbers into the key pad and hoped they were the right ones.  Of course they weren’t.  So the alarm started screaming, and then suddenly stopped.  The phone rang a few moments later, and the guy from the security company on the other end of the line asked if everything was okay.  The thing is, there’s a certain way you’re supposed to answer that question.  Certain phrasing of the words, “yes, everything is okay,” can either mean that yes, things are fine, or it is code to the security company that no, things are not okay and I need the police to come immediately.  Orella explained it to me on the first day that I moved into the house, and that the purpose of the different phrasing was so that if there really was a burglar in the house, he or she would think that by saying, “yes everything is okay” that the police weren’t coming, when really they were on their way.  In my moment of panic I couldn’t remember which phrase was which, but I miraculously remembered the second code word to tell the security guy.  I was obviously flustered, and apparently over the phone it was obvious that Spanish was not my first language, so the security guy asked me in very broken English, “Are.. you.. okay..?”  To which I said yes, I just forgot the code to the house.  For some reason he believed me, the code word must have worked, and the police didn’t show up to arrest me.  All of those code words are so confusing!  After my mini heart attack, I went to my room, finished my RA application (cross your fingers for me!) and went to bed. 

                This morning I went to church with Orella and Yara.  The pastor has been speaking about Love for the last few weeks since it is February.  I was actually surprised that Valentine’s Day in Costa Rica isn’t a big deal.  I would have completely forgotten it was Valentine’s Day last week had I not seen people on the side of the road selling flowers.  After church we went out to lunch at a small fast foodish restaurant in a neighboring town.  Orella asked me if I liked ravioli, and I said I did, so she ordered it for me.  I was expecting a little dish filled with stuffed pasta.  That was not what the waiter placed in front of me.  Apparently Costa Rica puts its own spin on ravioli.  In the basket in front of me was a cole slaw type of salad covered in a mustard and mayo sauce, and under that was a deep fried.. something, sitting on a small tortilla.  Really?  Ravioli?  Honestly I was less than thrilled.  I’m not a huge fan of mustard and mayo covered fried grease, but I didn’t want to be rude so I ate it.    

                After lunch we came back to the house, and Orella drove to her brother’s house to drop her niece off.  I decided to go to the park and do homework with my friend Rachel, so I lathered on some sunscreen and walked to the park, just in time for the clouds to roll in and wind to pick up.  Perfect.  Rachel and I ended up going into a little restaurant thing by the church where we bought coffee and worked on Spanish homework for a few hours.   

My Spanish 419 text book.  Doesn't it look like a fun read??

 Rachel told me to take a picture of the people sitting outside of the bread store (panaderia), so I did.  The bread there is SO good!

When I got back to the house, everyone was still out and about, so I sat down at the keyboard and practiced singing and playing some Spanish worship songs.  It’s a lot easier said than done!  But after a few times through the songs I started to get the hang of it.  Orella brought some calzone-like food home for dinner, so we ate those and then I asked if I could practice singing and playing for her and Yara.  It’s been such a long time since I’ve sang in front of people, I was really nervous, but they were very encouraging.  While I was sitting at the keyboard, I felt a weird shaking in the floor.  I thought Yara was kicking the keyboard bench, but it was actually a small earthquake!  It was a super weird feeling; I’ve never felt an earthquake before. 

                For the rest of the night I have homework and sleep to catch up on.  I hope everyone is having a fabulous weekend! 

Heavy rain and the beach!

Sunday, February 13, 2011

                It’s been almost a week since I posted last and so much has happened!  This post has a lot of pictures from the last week or so.  I’m not really sure where to begin.  First of all, I took some pictures around the Whitworth campus to give everyone more of an idea of what it looks like.

The front entry way

The rotunda where we study

 Another study area

The comedor (cafeteria)

One of the meals Juan made for us last week for lunch

One of the ponds in the backyard.  The white Egrets love it back there

We ran into a group of cows on our way up the hill

 Walking down the hill on a nice day

                Classes are going well, though I am busy all day actually being in class, then I come home, eat dinner, and do homework until I go to bed.  My days are very full!  This last Tuesday was my first day going to class from my new home in San Rafa.  Getting to the bus stop was easy.  The trip home after classes was a little different.  Every day after class I have the pleasure of walking down the hill from campus to the bus stop, and then I take the 5:00 bus home in San Rafa.  The bus takes about 45 minutes to get to my stop, so by then it’s beginning to get a little dark.  On Tuesday I got off the bus and headed toward the house.  I got a little confused since it was getting dark outside, so I walked around a few different blocks until I figured out where I was.  I’m not going to lie, it was a little freaky walking around while the sun was setting, but at least now I know exactly where I’m going.  In fact, the next day I stopped by the panaderia (bread shop) on my way home from the bus and enjoyed some bread on my walk home. 

 The sala (living room) at my host home

My room

The view out my bedroom window into the kitchen area

The indoor garden and rock wall across from the kitchen.  My room is to the left

The kitchen

The kitchen again

My bathroom

                Thursday morning was beautiful, so I decided to wear a long brown skirt to class with my Chaco sandals.  If you don’t know what Chacos are, google them.  They are the most comfortable, supportive, and durable all weather (except snow) shoe I’ve ever worn.  So after arriving at campus, the clouds started to roll in, and they just kept coming and coming.  Around 3:00 they burst open and showered rain over the Whitworth campus.  My glass ends at 4:45, and by then the rain was only coming down harder.  My classmates and I decided to head for the bus despite the mini flash flood that was occurring outside.  This was a BAD IDEA, especially since I was wearing a skirt and had conveniently left my umbrella in my closet back at home.  My only defense against Mother Nature was my rain jacket, so of course by the time we reached the bottom of the hill (waterfall at this point), my skirt was completely drenched, and the streets were flooded.  Note to self: ALWAYS carry an umbrella in Costa Rica.  Always.

Walking down the hill in the rain

A video of the rain water rushing over a hill by the road

Me, Danica and Rachel in the rain in San Rafa

Sooooo soaked

                   On Saturday, a group of students decided to take a day trip to the beach!  Jaco (ha-ko) is a small tourist town about 2 ½ hours from San Jose, so we decided that Saturday would be the perfect day to make the trip.  I woke up at 4:30 and packed my things for the day.  At 5:15, I met my friends Bree and Danica at the bus stop.  Orella didn’t want me walking in the dark to the bus stop, so she woke up early and drove me.  From there we took a bus to Heredia where we met up with our friends Hollie and Kaitlyn.  Nick, Heather, Amy, and Amy met us there shortly after, and then we got on a bus to San Jose.  We arrived in San Jose at around 6:15 in the morning, and let me tell you, it might as well have been noon because there were people everywhere!  What in the world were people doing up and about at 6:15 on a Saturday morning?  We stopped in a bread shop for breakfast, then made our way to the bus station.  A one way ticket to Jaco costs about 2,000 Colones, roughly $4.  We caught the 8:00 bus and were on our way! 

Danica, Hollie, Bree, Kaitlyn and me after we met up in Heredia at 5:45 in the morning

 

El Parque Central in Heredia 

                I sat across the aisle from two little kids around the age of 7.  The little girl kept making comments about the gringa (that’s what they call Americans here), meaning me, who was sitting near them.  It’s funny when people talk about me here and they think that I don’t understand them.  So I decided to let the kids know that I understood everything they were saying, so I turned to them and asked in Spanish, “Did school start for you this week?”  The looks on their faces were priceless.  They were shocked to say the least.    

                When we arrived in Jaco around 10:00, I was surprised at how many Americans were there.  Jaco is a very touristy place with lots of gift shops and resorts.  There were also several homeless people walking around the streets.  One man was sitting on the ground going through a garbage bad to find food for himself and his dog.  The stark contrast between the rich Americans vacationing there and the poor who live in Jaco was unexpected and sad to me.

                Jaco is much more humid than San Rafa or Heredia or San Jose.  I was actually expecting all of Costa Rica to be very humid, but I’m glad that it’s not.  I could feel my curls getting tighter as the bus cot closer to the beach.

                Some people in our group needed to use the restroom, so we stopped at what we thought was a public restroom.  I waited outside with Hollie, and a woman came up to us and said that the bathrooms cost 500 colones to use, roughly $1.  I guess nothing is free in Costa Rica.  We set up camp under some palm trees on the beach, put on another layer of sunscreen and ran to the ocean.  The water was so warm!  We spent the day in the ocean, laying on the beach, and walking around Jaco.  At one point while Bree and I were in the ocean, we looked around and said, “Can you believe we are here at the beach in Costa Rica, and our friends in Spokane are ‘enjoying’ the snow they just got a few days ago??”  For lunch, Hollie, Danica, Heather and I went to a Soda (that’s what they call outside restaurants) and got some food.  Then we walked around Jaco for a little bit, and I bought a hat in a store because I forgot mine at home.  

 The beach in Jaco

I didn't get a sunburn!

 Where we set up our stuff for the day

The sidewalk outside of the place where I bought my hat

 An orange lime?  We had no idea what this fruit was

Danica and her Ceviche 

Yumm

                We stayed at the beach until around 2:15, and then made our way to the bus stop to head back to San Jose.  The ride home took a little longer than the ride to the beach, so I started reading 90 Minutes in Heaven.  I’m about 70 pages into it, and it’s really good so far!  We got into San Jose around 5:30, just as it was starting to get dark.  I thought San Jose was busy at 6:15 in the morning.. but this time around it was ridiculous.  People were literally everywhere.  They were selling things on the streets, walking around, asking if anyone needed a ride in a taxi, and more.  It was very overwhelming, but we all stuck together in a group and didn’t have any problems.  We took a bus from San Jose into Heredia where some of us bought ice cream, then headed back to San Rafa.  I got home a little after 7:30, ate dinner, took a shower and fell into bed.  It was such an exhausting day, but it was great to know that we were able to take a trip to the beach, a place none of us had ever been before, and make it back all in one piece.  

On the bus before we left to go back to San Jose